Your Wednesday, November 18th letters continued an interesting debate about politics. I would like to contribute by pointing out a peripheral matter that too few citizens know about.

In debates like this, it is inevitable for a member of the left to find some excuse to refer to the preamble of our U. S. Constitution where we find these words: "promote the general welfare."

It is a travesty for any U.S. citizen to be so ignorant as to believe that phrase has anything to do with the notion of a government forcibly taking money from people who work and giving it to people who don’t.

At the time our Constitution was written, the word "welfare" had only one definition: "Health, happiness, and good fortune; well-being" The government defined by our Constitution, like no other before or after on this Earth, brilliantly implemented the best means to accommodate that very outcome for any citizen.

Unfortunately, political scoundrels have since somehow managed to make up and slip into our language an other definition of "welfare": "Financial or other aid provided, especially by the government, to people in need". That definition was unheard of, and does not show up in any published dictionary before the 1890’s.

Attempts to imply that our Constitution encourages socialism should be challenged by all patriots.

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